Last week, Navy Secretary Donald Winter tore a bunch of defense industry types a collective new one over their runaway costs for eternally-delayed projects. Today, he backed up the hardball words with even tougher action. Winter just announced he's canceling construction of Lockheed Martin's second Littoral Combat Ship, after expenses on the first one went sky high.
Winter went ballistic, when Lockheed's original LCS went from a $220 million ship to a $410 million one. After all, the (relatively) inexpensive LCS -- a 400-foot, configurable ship, designed for shoreline fighting -- was supposed to be the cornerstone of the 21st century Navy, with almost a sixth of the 313-ship fleet.
Shenanigans on the LCS could cripple the entire operation. The LCS
program manager was canned; the admiral in charge of ship-building was reassigned; work on the ship was suspended.
Winter demanded that the second LCS contract be renegotiated. The old one was a "cost-plus" deal that paid out big bucks, no matter how the firm did its job. Winter wanted a firm price for his ship.
That was something Lockheed refused to accept. So Winter pulled the plug on the Lockheed's second LCS. It's the strongest sign yet that Winter intends to wrestle control of the U.S. fleet away from contractors, and put the Navy back in charge of the shipbuilding process. To which we in the DANGER ROOM say: Hell, yeah.
